Thailand Remains in Doing Business Top-20
The World Bank has released its 2014 Doing Business rankings, the 11th in its annual series that now compares 189 of the world's economies on topics such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts, resolving insolvency and getting electricity. The report enables tracking an economy over a period of time in order to access the trend towards improvement in regulations that affect business. This year's report makes the interesting observation that low-income economies have improved their regulations at twice the rate of high income economies. Equally interesting is that economies that do well in the rankings are not necessarily those in countries with smaller governments. The World Bank does note that its report is not about less regulation, but about better regulation. This is so, for instance, in the protection of investors and in providing transparency, whereas burdensome regulations will result in lower rankings. "If economies around the world followed the best practice in regulatory processes for starting a business, entrepreneurs would spend 45.4 million fewer days each year satisfying bureaucratic requirements", according to the 2014 report. This year, Thailand is ranked once again among the top twenty countries in the world. Remaining at 18th and among the top-20 countries for several years now, investors in Thailand enjoy one of the finest investment destinations available, and one that continuously strives for improvement. In terms of starting a business, it takes only 4 procedures and 27.5 days in Thailand, one of the best times recorded in Southeast Asia. Likewise, dealing with construction permits is not difficult in Thailand, nor is registering property which takes only 2 days. At #12, Thailand is also one of the best ranked countries in ASEAN for getting electricity.
Thailand is listed as one of 8 economies in the past five years "making comprehensive changes to several areas of regulation that affect the protections of minority shareholders in related-party transactions." Thailand is also working hard to improve is cross-border trade, particularly during the run-up to the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015. The Doing Business report notes that it takes only 5 documents to either export or to import, with a cost per container of US$595 and US$760, respectively. This year's report also lists Thailand among those countries which, since last year's report was issued, have made paying taxes easier and lowered the tax burden. "Thailand decreased employers' social security contribution rate from 5% in 2011 to 3% for January - June 2012 and 4% for July - December 2012." Thailand is also one of 7 out of 25 economies in the Asia and Pacific region that have established electronic systems for the filing and paying of taxes. Thailand continues to present investors with an easy and competitive investment environment, amidst one of the more attractive tourist destinations in the world. With a strong and strengthening infrastructure, government support, and geographic location it is clear why Thailand continues to attract investments from around the world.